Episode III Leaks to the Net

[bapenguin]

Star Wars Episode III has already found it's way onto the internet. (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=582&e=3&u=/nm/20050519/wr_nm/media_starwars_piracy_dc) Apparantly there are 2 copies of it floating around, and one of the copies actually has the time stamping on it, which could mean it actually came from someone working on the movie.

It's really ashame this happened, but it's going to have little or no effect on ticket sales.

[sickfallout]

Why is this surprising? "Breaking news today, the latest installment in a movie series with the biggest nerd fanbase ever has been leaked across the internet! in other news, fire is hot, and gravity makes you fall."

I'm not bagging on you bapenguin, I just find news media hilarious.

[dr_qwandry]

Movie files are about 50 times larger than music files, which makes them much more cumbersome to download, but new technologies like BitTorrent and increased high-speed Internet penetration are closing the gap.



Bittorrent is usualy slower

[bobbler]

One of the copies came out before the movie did (only shortly), and the other copy came just after one of the first showings.

Not a big surprise though, it would be far more surprising if it didn't show up at all.

The people who are willing to watch the crappy quality usually aren't the type that would go out and pay 8 monies to see it anyways. No big deal as far as profit loss.

[Sinistar]

Grabbing it might actually be better than going to see it! Better yet, skip both.

[Hieremias]

Why is this surprising? "Breaking news today, the latest installment in a movie series with the biggest nerd fanbase ever has been leaked across the internet! in other news, fire is hot, and gravity makes you fall."

I'm not bagging on you bapenguin, I just find news media hilarious.

What's significant about this one is that one of the leaks is a near-perfect DVD copy, the only flaw being a timestamp that's been smudged out. (The other is poorer quality.) It's not often that a DVD quality rip of a movie hits the Net while, or even before, the movie has hit the theatres. And it's even less often for a high-profile title like this one.

I downloaded it but won't be watching it until after I've seen the flick on the big screen. Star Wars is a big-screen experience, no question, so I doubt this leak will hurt box office sales too much.

[Ranhert]

I won't even let this abomination take up room on my hard drive.

[AbeLincoln]

Boing Boing (http://www.boingboing.net/2005/05/19/star_wars_iii_online.html) has an intellegent take on this. Saying all of bittorrent is evil because of this when it was someone inside the studio that leaked it is just the sort of thing that makes me hate the MPAA

[Chandler]

Hieremias: near-perfect DVD copy?, haha, I'm looking at 2 releases and neither is good to be even VHS quality.

[NACIONAL]

I don't want to see those copies... damn, thath movie is made to be seen in theatres!

(i just saw it ... it was AWESOME!)

[falak]

Actually, DVD quality movies are constantly hitting the net, but they get compressed down and distributed by the darknet before you ever see them. And they almost always come from an employee close to the production/review of the movie. I thought this was common knowledge?

EDIT: Apparently (http://www.bearcave.com/misl/misl_tech/msdrm/darknet.htm) it's "the darknet", not "darknets". George W. Bush has ruined my vocabulary.

[SaintArnold]

Don't listen to the haters; sw3 is GOOD, even for someone who doesn't really like the last 2. But see it in the theatre, the small screen won't do it justice.

[TrackZero]

What's significant about this one is that one of the leaks is a near-perfect DVD copy, the only flaw being a timestamp that's been smudged out. (The other is poorer quality.) It's not often that a DVD quality rip of a movie hits the Net while, or even before, the movie has hit the theatres. And it's even less often for a high-profile title like this one.

I downloaded it but won't be watching it until after I've seen the flick on the big screen. Star Wars is a big-screen experience, no question, so I doubt this leak will hurt box office sales too much.

Actually it's not "near-perfect", it's got the numbers on the top, the aspect ratio is fucked, and there's lots of artificating (at least, that's what I've heard *cough* *cough*). I've already got my ticket to see Episode 3 this morning at 11:30am, which is the way to see this movie, period. I'm already now planning a trip to go it a 2nd time on one of the digital projectors near me (I saw episode 2 on a digital projector...DAMN).

[Beelzebud]

This happens to EVERY movie. Why is this being reported as news? This is like a "no duh" item. Of course it got pirated. Did anyone honestly think it wouldn't?

And someone earlier said the thing is DVD quality... No it isn't. Unless you consider MPEG1 VCD compliant video, as being DVD quality...

Read that boing boing article. It's the most sanity I've seen on this subject.

[bapenguin]

it's news because:
1) Mainstream media are reporting it
2) the fact that it's a studio leak of such a HUGE title is news (if this was Little Mermaid 2, nobody would give two shits)
3) because star wars is part of gaming and geek culture

[Hieremias]

TrackZero, Beel, etc... that's the low-quality one I mentioned. I'm quite sure you haven't seen the good one. I have it on my machine now. It had the timer at the top that's been smudged out (an annoyance, yes). But otherwise it's pretty much like any other DVD-rip.

I only watched one scene from it. The Dark Side is pulling me to it, but I definitely want to hold out and see it in theatre first. Must... resist... Dark Side.

[fndarkone]

ep3 is really good. this is what the other 2 should have been like.

[Ballistic.]

Well I've seen it twice already, this movie friggin rocks !! From start to finish it's awesome, only minimal amount of cheesy love story in the mix, the rest is pure brilliance, Lucas has redeemed himself in my view.

[CapnBob]

Episode 3 is flashes of greatness intermixed with painful unintentional comedy.

[[HATE]MyLife]

This was a great movie! Truly amazing! Now if they could only do something about the stilted dialogue and the wooden acting, there really might be something there.

[XxSATANxX]

Wooopie??? CNN alerts the world SW3 being on the Internet. I agree that seeing this in a theater is a must for fans. The copies on the web however can range from scary bad to HD/DVD quality. Someone inside LUCAS leaked it. (My guess) Why? Maybe cause they think it will be good for the overall ticket sales. I think it will help (My guess) :p

[GrinR]

As fantastic a spectacle as it is a failure of a movie, Episode III is strictly for the video game generation.

[mondain98]

Episode III? Isn't that the one where Data and Tasha Yar have sex?

[Vampyre]

Hieremias: near-perfect DVD copy?, haha, I'm looking at 2 releases and neither is good to be even VHS quality.


The ones that are floating around now, are Workprints.. so they are not full on copies, they are missing lots of the Effects and Music.. so no it's not even close to Near Dvd Copy..... :D

[NACIONAL]

As fantastic a spectacle as it is a failure of a movie, Episode III is strictly for the video game generation.

please explain.... Why is a failure of a movie??

I have to admit that the "love" scenes between padme and anakin are pure "cheesyness", the rest of the movie absolutelly rocked...

All the lightsaber fights were good, and the opening scene in space is trully spectacular!

[Hieremias]

The ones that are floating around now, are Workprints.. so they are not full on copies, they are missing lots of the Effects and Music.. so no it's not even close to Near Dvd Copy..... :D
Heh, if you say so. The one on my hard drive says otherwise. :)

Really, I can tell if a movie isn't complete.

[Mason]

Man, the Episode 3 haters keep trolling hard, but thankfully few people are biting. Keep trying guys, or slink back to the AICN comments board where you belong.

The acting is something that couldn't be helped. The only reason the OT had decent chemistry between the actors is because the collaborative atmosphere allowed the actors to have a role in shaping the script. Since going mad with his success, Lucas has trouble accepting input from anyone but his yes-men.

The three primaries in Ep 1-3 are overall far better actors than their 4-6 counterparts (Mark Hamill was a soap opera pretty-boy, for cripes sake), but their performances are horrible for precisely this reason. Between the green screening, slap-dash editing, and unreadable dialogue, I doubt they knew what was happening half of the time, and the actors weren't given a chance to negotiate their roles into something they could work with.

Still, Episode 3 took things seriously enough to redeem the series.

[Phades]

*SPOILER if You've been under a rock and know nothing about Star Wars*
I loved it, saw it last night and hope to see it again this weekend. I agree that most of the scenes between Anakin and Padme were pretty bad, but those aren't the reason I went to this movie. The fight between Obi-Wan and Anakin was AWESOME as was just about every scene with the Emperor. It was especially cool when they started killing off the Jedi.

All that said, what is up with the stupid voices for the super battle droids and aliens???

[GrinR]

Why? For those who were understandably too dazzled by the amazing visuals to notice:

Script: Shit. Pure horrible shit. I won't bother quoting any of it, it's all shit.

Acting: Almost all shit. Ewan, Natalie, and Sam can all act up a storm and in this they are terrible. The only decent acting came from Ian McDiarmid, who managed to tap the B-movie magic vein and almost effortlessly become The Bad Guy. A nod to the kid playing one of the last Jedi - he stood out as one of the better performances for the 5 seconds or so he was onscreen.

Editing: Endless overuse of the classic sweep-cut, to the point where it looked like someone with VideoToaster or some other cheap video edit tool went haywire on the movie. Scenes had nearly no flow, instead choosing to lean heavily on Star Wars lore (light sabers, Yoda, Star Destroyers) to distract the viewer from that the story had completely changed direction.

Plot/Lore consistancy: This is where purist go nuts, and you can imagine what they say; I won't bother since I'm not a Starwars nut. The plot was riddled with glaring inconsistancies, the worst one being Anakin's reason for falling to the dark side. *SPOILER WARNING* He has a -dream- about his wife dying and he decides to slaughter his own family and countless innocents because a self-described lord of EVIL tells him he can save her? WTF? How about consulting with anyone on the Jedi council, Obi-wan or Yoda? Ridiculous. And the bit about nobody noticing Padme's pregnant or that Anakin is the obvious father... please. Are these Jedi, or clueless chumps?

Soundtrack: Fantastic. Really great.

And that's about it. That's why it's a failure of a movie. For Starwars fans it's going to be hit and miss, mostly miss, but as a movie it will disappear into obscurity within the decade, along with all the other new Starwars movies. They are fantastic spectacles that are magic to watch but have zero resonance with the dreams and emotions of their audience. At best.

[morose]

Why? For those who were understandably too dazzled by the amazing visuals to notice:

Script: Shit. Pure horrible shit. I won't bother quoting any of it, it's all shit.

I'd disagree that ALL of it is shit. But George has never been a great screen writer. He's a storyteller. This is nothing new with ANY of the Star Wars films. It doesn't mean they aren't riveting movies.

Acting: Almost all shit. Ewan, Natalie, and Sam can all act up a storm and in this they are terrible. The only decent acting came from Ian McDiarmid, who managed to tap the B-movie magic vein and almost effortlessly become The Bad Guy. A nod to the kid playing one of the last Jedi - he stood out as one of the better performances for the 5 seconds or so he was onscreen.
Again... nothing new for the series. Alec Guiness aside. Natalie and Ewan stepped up in this one though. Hayden and Sam are still painful.

Editing: Endless overuse of the classic sweep-cut, to the point where it looked like someone with VideoToaster or some other cheap video edit tool went haywire on the movie. Scenes had nearly no flow, instead choosing to lean heavily on Star Wars lore (light sabers, Yoda, Star Destroyers) to distract the viewer from that the story had completely changed direction.
Er, that's a conscious choice made to make it resemble a pulp serial. Love it or hate it, that's up to the viewer. I personally liked that there were almost 3 movies being told simultaneously. YMMV and obviously did. ;)

Plot/Lore consistancy: This is where purist go nuts, and you can imagine what they say; I won't bother since I'm not a Starwars nut. The plot was riddled with glaring inconsistancies, the worst one being Anakin's reason for falling to the dark side. *SPOILER WARNING* He has a -dream- about his wife dying and he decides to slaughter his own family and countless innocents because a self-described lord of EVIL tells him he can save her? WTF? How about consulting with anyone on the Jedi council, Obi-wan or Yoda? Ridiculous. And the bit about nobody noticing Padme's pregnant or that Anakin is the obvious father... please. Are these Jedi, or clueless chumps?
I agree that the motivation is lame. However, after being treated like a punk by the Jedi (which he is by every one of them except Obi and *maybe* Yoda) despite what we're lead to believe are his best efforts (and for the record he DID go to Yoda first, but was basically told to stop loving his wife) it's not suprising he falls in with the only guy who seems to genuinely care for him when the chips are down. Rushed? Yes. Absolute shit? I'd say not. Again, screenplay/acting does a disservice to a great story.

Soundtrack: Fantastic. Really great.
Agreed. Great stuff.

And that's about it. That's why it's a failure of a movie. For Starwars fans it's going to be hit and miss, mostly miss, but as a movie it will disappear into obscurity within the decade, along with all the other new Starwars movies. They are fantastic spectacles that are magic to watch but have zero resonance with the dreams and emotions of their audience. At best.
For me this movie raised the level of the entire series and even helped the previous two in several ways for me. Obviously to each their own. Everyone has different tastes. All my Star Wars geek buddies and I basically said, "I wouldn't have done this, or that... but overall... holy shit that was cool!". ;)

Oh, and back to the original topic... I'm dissappointed that a work copy was leaked. Shaky cams are expected, but a leak from someone on the staff?! Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

[Sinistar]

Why? For those who were understandably too dazzled by the amazing visuals to notice:

Script: Shit. Pure horrible shit. I won't bother quoting any of it, it's all shit.

Acting: Almost all shit. Ewan, Natalie, and Sam can all act up a storm and in this they are terrible. The only decent acting came from Ian McDiarmid, who managed to tap the B-movie magic vein and almost effortlessly become The Bad Guy. A nod to the kid playing one of the last Jedi - he stood out as one of the better performances for the 5 seconds or so he was onscreen.

Editing: Endless overuse of the classic sweep-cut, to the point where it looked like someone with VideoToaster or some other cheap video edit tool went haywire on the movie. Scenes had nearly no flow, instead choosing to lean heavily on Star Wars lore (light sabers, Yoda, Star Destroyers) to distract the viewer from that the story had completely changed direction.

Plot/Lore consistancy: This is where purist go nuts, and you can imagine what they say; I won't bother since I'm not a Starwars nut. The plot was riddled with glaring inconsistancies, the worst one being Anakin's reason for falling to the dark side. *SPOILER WARNING* He has a -dream- about his wife dying and he decides to slaughter his own family and countless innocents because a self-described lord of EVIL tells him he can save her? WTF? How about consulting with anyone on the Jedi council, Obi-wan or Yoda? Ridiculous. And the bit about nobody noticing Padme's pregnant or that Anakin is the obvious father... please. Are these Jedi, or clueless chumps?

Soundtrack: Fantastic. Really great.

And that's about it. That's why it's a failure of a movie. For Starwars fans it's going to be hit and miss, mostly miss, but as a movie it will disappear into obscurity within the decade, along with all the other new Starwars movies. They are fantastic spectacles that are magic to watch but have zero resonance with the dreams and emotions of their audience. At best.


Well, I'll be a monkeys uncle. It's about time someone else on this board has a set of nads and is as disappointed with this movie as I am.

And Mason, dude - you're allowed to love it as much as I disliked it. In my mind that just shows that I have *much* better taste in, and expect a whole lot more from, the movies that I watch than you do. ;)

[SaintArnold]

...but as a movie it will disappear into obscurity within the decade, along with all the other new Starwars movies.

Bwahahaha, good one. :rolleyes:

[GrinR]

Saint, trust me. Episode I is remembered only for Jar-jar. Episode II for... yoda?

The younger generation will remember the Matrix trilogy (which resonates with them) far far more than they will these new Star Wars movies. They are visual candy - no more. The original series had both themes and characters the audience loved, neither of which show up in the new ones.

Original series:
Han Solo? universally known 3 decades later. Darth Vader? You can't breathe heavy without thinking of him. Princess Leia? She of the buns who was mother/sister/lover at different turns - a far cry from the Padme 'action figure' turned milquetoast. Chewbacca! Nuff said. We got "the force", something everyone could relate to because it was mysterious and yet compelling. We got father/son, brother/sister, and multiple bonds-of-friendship axis around which the core plotlines flowed.

New series:
Jar Jar Binks. Universally despised by all but a tiny segment of children. Darth Maul. Remember him? Maybe. Same as Qai Gon (sp?) he is completely forgotten. Jango Fett. Like Darth Maul introduced then killed. We got "annie"s "YIPEEE!". We got a plotline about trade federations against the separatists or the republic's droids versus an army of secret clone say whaaa? You lost me. I dare anyone to explain to me what happened plotwise from Episode I to III. Even if possible - who cares? Will anyone feel at any point in their life like a scene from Episodes I-III? No. Because these movies are about visuals, not emotions.

Search your feelings, indeed.

[[HATE]MyLife]

Don't forget "Midichlorians".

F'n retarded.

[GrinR]

I could go on and on all day. Midiclorians, gungan/droid war, roger-roger, tarzan yell of wookie, C3PO's one liners "I've lost my head!", fire and smoke factory prince of persia scene, anakin's slave mother left behind, Jabba's mysterious shrinkage, POINTY lightsabers (anyone catch this in Ep3?), vomit-inducing political/love jabbering (both equally vapid), and on and on and on.

It's almost as if someone with no soul took the franchise and decided to wear it as a money hat.

Oh wait, nevermind, that's exactly what it is.

[BenSkywalker]

He has a -dream- about his wife dying and he decides to slaughter his own family and countless innocents because a self-described lord of EVIL tells him he can save her? WTF? How about consulting with anyone on the Jedi council, Obi-wan or Yoda? Ridiculous.

Uhhh, he did consult with Yoda- and Yoda told him to let her die and enjoy the fact that she was dead.

And the bit about nobody noticing Padme's pregnant or that Anakin is the obvious father... please.

Because Generals in the middle of a war have a lot of time to check up on what everyone is doing with all of their spare time.....

[GrinR]

Ben - and that was totally out of Yoda's character. It was like Yoda was possessed by some kind of Dianetics freak. Are you serious? Yoda preaching about celebrating death? WTF? He was like, "she will be joining the flow of the force, not sad be you!" And I'm thinking to myself, WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE???!!!

[GrinR]

Holy shit. Read this article (http://weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/628vifsm.asp) which basically explains what I was saying in much better words.

Scary how similar it is - and I swear I didn't read this before I wrote my comments!

[EGO]

I am not defending, nor condoning the movie, but it amazes me how much hatred and venom is spewed in these forums.

People seem to relish in the "I'm smarter than you because I don't like something popular... nyah - nyah - nyah" mentality. People seem to think because they can break something down that someone else enjoys, they're "intelligent, critical-minded and insightful".

You ever stop to think, you're probably just bitter?

Most of you people don't have kids and are merely kids yourselves, so you may not have the insight of looking at your children for their actual opinion of these movies. Someone said that "The Matrix will resonate with 'this generation'." Actually, you're wrong. Matrix is not a solid trilogy like the original SW trilogy and most kids were too young to see/enjoy Matrix. Matrix is for teens-to-adults, not the kids that the original SW was aimed at and subsiquently this trilogy. To tell you the truth, Lord of the Rings is the "new Star Wars". This is the trilogy that resonates with the kids today, and has left a lasting mark upon them.

The thing us "smarter than you" people need to "get" is that Star Wars is for kids. It always has been and always will be. Was the original trilogy better? You bet your arse it was! Partially because there was nothing like it before; visually epic, amazing special effects, amazing sounds, vapid acting, trite dialog, plot inconsistencies and all.

Nowadays, people are jaded. The very fact that someone can be meloncholy about this movie being STOLEN and plastered around for all to see in a rough form, pass judgement on and then post up their opinions (as if they're LAW), is just a classic example.

[GrinR]

EGO, what you don't "get" is that the Prequel trilogy is soulless. I've done an excellent job of sourcing that opinion, which is summarized by saying that kids of today who saw these movies will have long forgotten them by the time they are my age. The original series, however, will live on - not because it had FX or acting or epic or whatever, but because the themes were compelling and emotional.

That you don't "get" that is why you feel less intelligent than I.

[Captain Alaska]

People seem to relish in the "I'm smarter than you because I don't like something popular... nyah - nyah - nyah" mentality. People seem to think because they can break something down that someone else enjoys, they're "intelligent, critical-minded and insightful".

You ever stop to think, you're probably just bitter?


Amen to that EGO, I think the people you are describing are Trolls.

Where is the respect?

I (and many others) agree there were problems with 3, but I enjoyed it. Sorry if that is 'wrong'.